Need some help with browning out sps

[daniella3d]

I doubt it. I don't have much flow in my tank. I have 5ppm of nitrates and quite a bit of phosphates, yet my SPS have great colors and they grow fast, under 250 watt Pheonix MH.

Some of them grow a lot and there is so little flow that you bearely see the polyps moving.

Polyps are out so much that I cannot see the skeleton of the coral (milleporas).

I would think it's the light here that is the problem. Probably the coral need acclimatation to the new light. When I moved a few frags of SPS to my 20 gallons tank with T5HO they became brown and are still brown to this day, but in that aquarium I have nearly 0 nitrates and phosphates and a lot of flow, plus a Deltec 300 skimmer. It's wierd sometime how they react. Maybe once a SPS get used to a type of light it will take a long time to adjust to another light? dunno. I wanted T5HO so that I could have low nutrient system with pastel color corals. I never hapened.

Originally Posted by reefwars

i think your problem is not enough flow , which is not pushing enough into your filtration.

a hob skimmer only pulls out what it can suck around it , powerheads help keep stuff suspended so the skimmer pulls it out.


i wouldnt rely on just my skimmer output and ac for flow.

[reefwars]

[quote=daniella3d;750737]I doubt it. I don't have much flow in my tank. I have 5ppm of nitrates and quite a bit of phosphates, yet my SPS have great colors and they grow fast, under 250 watt Pheonix MH.

Some of them grow a lot and there is so little flow that you bearely see the polyps moving.

Polyps are out so much that I cannot see the skeleton of the coral (milleporas).

quote]

ok .....fine ill play.... so your using just a ac110 for flow in your tank and a hob skimmer? cause if not then your comparrison is void to what i was talking about.



and let me see if i got this right but this is what your saying is perfect sps conditions??

"I don't have much flow in my tank. I have 5ppm of nitrates and quite a bit of phosphates, yet my SPS have great colors and they grow fast, under 250 watt Pheonix MH"


5ppm nitrates, quite a bit of phos and bright light....ill have to make a note of that i guess ive been going about it the wrong way all these years...thanks for the awesome tip maybe now my sps will grow to be oh so colorfull and wondeful too:P

not sure if you read the thread , i was going off the origional post where it doesnt say he is using powerheads....and YES you do need good flow if you want good growth and color, not critical to keep it alive in which there is a big difference.

[Aquattro]

Flow, to me, isn't that important for color. Or growth for that matter, if you're not concerned with thick natural growth. SPS in alow flow will grow very skinny and spindly, but will grow.
Lighting is important, not too much, not too little. Some nutrient is fine, many SPS tanks have some nitrate and measurable phosphate. As Levi said, stability is important, and tougher in a small tank. Not impossible, but not ideally managed by someone with less experience growing SPS. I've seen nice nanos with colorful acros, but I imagine it's much tougher.
Really, there's lots of ways to be successful and lots of ways to not be. The trick it to find that sweet spot for your setup and habits. All the info, together or in part will give someone a place to begin figuring it all out.
Daniella has shown pics of her corals and they;re impressive. I would be less quick to dismiss her advice.

[daniella3d]

Perfect SPS conditions? there seem to be a range of "perfect" SPS conditions since mine are growing like weeds in these conditions.

I have 2 koralia in my 75 gallons, that's it. No sump so no return pump and flow from that. So some part of my tank only receive very little flow and some SPS there are not even waving their polyps so that's really not much flow. I keep thinking they will die, but they don't.

If your SPS have poor colors, then not sure what is your problem. I am sure you will figure it out

Again, I don't have much flow and I have great colors and growth. They don't juste stay alive, they thrive.

So what makes the colors then? I would say light and stability is more important than flow. The difference I can see is that my corals are darker in color than those kept in ULN, but they are colorfull still.

Also the colors improved a lot when I started to use Zeovit Coral amino and coral vite, that was 2 years ago.

I did not know that the OP had no powerhead and no flow. That must be a problem to even keep corals alive, never mind the colors.





[quote=reefwars;750763]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

and let me see if i got this right but this is what your saying is perfect sps conditions??

"I don't have much flow in my tank. I have 5ppm of nitrates and quite a bit of phosphates, yet my SPS have great colors and they grow fast, under 250 watt Pheonix MH"


5ppm nitrates, quite a bit of phos and bright light....ill have to make a note of that i guess ive been going about it the wrong way all these years...thanks for the awesome tip maybe now my sps will grow to be oh so colorfull and wondeful too:P

not sure if you read the thread , i was going off the origional post where it doesnt say he is using powerheads....and YES you do need good flow if you want good growth and color, not critical to keep it alive in which there is a big difference.

[Zoaelite]

Hate to say it but even the most experienced reefers would be presented with problems while trying to keep SPS coral in a 20g sumpless. Its simply not enough volume to ensure a constant environment for such an intolerant class of animals.